Ziv: Parashat Tzav

I will put my law within them

The Book of Leviticus in also called “Torat Cohanim”, the Torah of priests, because it details the ritual of sacrifices, and the service of priests in the tabernacle of the desert, and later in the temple of Jerusalem.

The reading of these pages shows a great precision in the description of the offerings, and great care in the functions of the priests. How therefore should one understand the call of the prophets : “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6) .. or that of the Psalm : “For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased” (Psalm 51:16) when the Torah says that the smell of sacrifice is pleasing to the One who demands it? Tradition attributes the composition of the Psalms to King David, and it is in fact with him that this Psalm deals Indeed it is his son Solomon, also son of Bathsheba with whom David had sinned, who will receive the mission to construct the temple of Jerusalem, in which, all these types of sacrifices will be offered… It is therefore that sacrifices remain necessary, even though it does not replace a broken heart and repentance (however guilt itself is not the only motive for sacrifice : there are also sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving..)

After the destruction of the temple, the sages of Israel who decide to write and compile the oral tradition to make the Talmud, establish that prayers henceforth replace the sacrifices of the temple. It is the entirety of the people, and priestly kingdom, which raise prayer three times a day. The morning prayer, “Shaharit”, the prayer of the dawn, is introduced with the reading of the ritual of sacrifices. The story of the binding of Isaac, remembering the lamb that was offered in its placed.
In the Talmud, it is also the study of the Torah that replaces the sacrifices of the Temple : “ Rabbi Itzhak says : what do we learn from the verse “this ritual of of the sacrifice for transgression” (Leviticus 6:18) and the verse “this ritual of of the sacrifice for reparation” (Leviticus 7:1)? That all those who study the laws (torah) of the sacrifice of sin are considered as if they have offered this sacrifice and all those who study the laws of the sacrifice of reparation are considered as it they have offered this sacrifice (Bavli Minhot 13). Shabbat Shalom.